What’s New?

Coordinator Professional Development and Principal/Coordinator Meeting RESCHEDULED!
Amazingly, we have managed to find a new date that works for all the presenters involved AND there was space available, to boot! Please mark your calendars for the following dates. Unfortunately, there were no “free” Mondays in January. I realize meeting on an alternate day may create other conflicts. I apologize, in advance, and ask for your understanding and flexibility. Hopefully, you have enough advance notice that you are able to adjust calendars, accordingly. Thanks, All! Here’s the agenda: Title Coord. PD_Meeting 012114A

Tuesday, 1/21/14
Coordinator PD:
11:00-11:30 lunch provided
11:30-2:30 Coordinator PD
2:30-3:45 Principal/Coordinator meeting

Friday, 1/31/14
Go Solve
8:00-11:00

2014-2015 Budget: Budget planning for next year will be getting underway, soon. Typically, mid-late February staffing allocations are distributed to schools to coincide with the distribution of general fund budgets. I will keep you apprised as specific timelines become clearer. As a reminder, free/reduced percentages are calculated using the December 1, 2013 count.

Title I School Visitations: I will be visiting schools the week of January 6. Specifically, visitations will take place on 1/7, 1/9 and 1/10.  Bee should have been in contact with each of you, via email and/or phone, to establish a meeting time. If you have not set up a meeting time with Bee, please contact her as soon as you can! This is an opportunity for us to visit about your program and address any questions you may have. Specifically, I will want to review  your notebook (documents), look at your schedules, discuss your delivery model/program and hear about your role in Data Teams . I am also interested in your SMART goals and would like to know how I can be of support! Here is a draft of they types of things we may be talking about (Title I School Visits Q’s (Jan. 2014).

Parent/School Compacts: Thank you to those schools who have sent your English/Spanish compacts to Monica for posting on the district website. Here is a link to the webpage so that you will have an idea of what we are doing with the compacts. Should you have new families enroll at your school, feel free to direct them to the website to view your compact! We have received compacts from: ATA, Awbrey Park, Chavez, Eugene Waldorf, McCornack, River Road, Spring Creek, Twin Oaks and Willa-g; thanks! If you still need to send your compact to Monica, please do so asap.

Parent/School Compacts link: http://www.4j.lane.edu/instruction/title/parentinvolvement/compacts/

Technology “This and That”! As Monica begins to wind down her working with Extended Learning w/Technology teams (getting them set up with equipment for the year and reviewing expectations) she will begin the process of distributing the excess equipment that was gathered when Title schools were closed. As you may recall, Coordinators were asked to complete a survey if they were interested in obtaining some additional equipment. While there were more requests than equipment, if you completed a survey you will be getting some equipment. You can look forward to Monica dispersing this equipment soon after winter break!

Student Profiles: Student profiles, in Quickbase, should be current no later than January 17. Matt will generate a Quickbase Report Summary, mid-year (January), which will allow me to review the status of each schools’ profiles (are all student profiles current? For example,  has the below information been completed and entered into Quickbase, is there documentation of on-going data team notes for those students discussed during meetings, etc.). Individual student profiles must be printed and filed in student folders/binders in June (whatever your method of organizing student profiles).

• Title I is checked for all students receiving Title services
• Parent notification is checked (if sent)
• Compact is checked (if returned/signed)
• Notes entered

Indistar and School Improvement: To help support the transition to the Indistar tool in developing a Comprehensive Achievement Plan (aka School Improvement Plan; SIP), I have created a new page on the Title One site. This page contains an introduction to Indistar, steps in moving staff through the process, as well as additional resources to aide in this work. Please contact Suzy to help get your school started in using this dynamic tool! If you would like your school’s login, please contact Suzanne Price, Federal Programs Administrator. As a side, you don’t have to wait until your current SIP expires to get started! Link to Indistar and School Improvement.

Transition to Indistar 2013-2014: Chavez, Family, Holt, KMS, McCornack and Twin Oaks. River Road and Spring Creek will continue in their use of Indistar.

Attestations: Bee’s initial email was sent to principals (cc’d coordinators) in November. A second reminder went out to principals/coordinators on 12/19. Principals – please sign your attestation and provide both your coordinator and Bee a copy. As of 12/19, we have received attestations from ATA, Chavez, Family, Howard and McCornack; THANKS!

GoTo Meeting: I am planning an optional GoTo Meeting to serve as an informal Q&A for interested coordinators. This will also afford us an opportunity to practice using our new digital meeting tool! The meeting has been tentatively scheduled for February 11 @ 3:00. I will let you know once the date has been confirmed. In the meantime, mark your calendars!

Verbal Behaviors in a Class That Let Kids Get Smart (pg. 196 in The Skillful Teacher)
Teacher starts by asking a good open-ended question that gets students thinking. Then…

1. Asks students to explain the thinking behind their answers whether they’re right or wrong
2. Asks students if they agree or disagree with a student answer.
3. Asks students to comment of add on to a student’s response or idea.
4. Creates and facilitates dialogue between students about their ideas.
5. Asks follow-up questions that are similar to ones just discussed to see if student really understands.
6. Asks students to make connections to something another student said or something else they know.
7. Credits meaning to student comments even obscure ones, and probes for the student’s thinking – and does the same with incorrect answers.
8. Uses wait time, allowing students to struggle, and dwells with the student’s thinking sticking with them.
9. Comes back to a student to check and clarify what his or he thinking is, given the comments of other students.
10. Asks questions to surface discrpancies between what the student says and the information in front of them: “How can that be? What’s going on there?”

Students:

1. Do the majority of the talking.
2. Are expected to explain their thinking
3. Show they are listening to one another.
4. Are willing to admit confusion or not knowing.
5. Challenge each other’s thinking non-judgmentally.
6. Take initiate to explain another student’s thinking, including how he or she might have made an error.
7. Who get it quickly take responsibility for helping those who don’t.

Should Objectives Be Posted in Classrooms?In this blog post, Grant Wiggins comments on administrators requiring teachers to post daily objectives on the wall, sometimes in the name of UbD-type backwards design of curriculum units. Some schools take it a step further: when students are asked what standard they’re working on, they chorus, “We’re working on ELA Standard B.2.a.i.”

“This gets it all backwards,” says Wiggins. “The posting is the means; the end is understanding of the meaning of the work and a way to stay on track… The aim is to ensure that students understand goals and how current activities support those goals. Ideally, then, students have perspective and see the value of the work; they understand the why of the current work in order to find it more meaningful and to facilitate purposeful learning, and they have a touchstone for gauging progress (and thus use of time).”

The best test of posting goals on the wall is whether students can answer questions like, Why are we doing this? Why does it matter? and How does it connect to previous work? If students respond, “I dunno” or “Ask the teacher,” it’s not a good sign – and it doesn’t validate the efficacy of the sign on the wall. [Far better to have provocative, well-crafted unit Essential Questions on the wall and frequently refer to them as the unit unfolds.]

“Mandating the Daily Posting of Objectives, and Other Dumb Ideas” by Grant Wiggins

http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/mandating-the-daily-posting-of-objectives-and-other-dumb-ideas/, Dec. 5, 2013

Friendly Reminders:

When making purchases with Title I funds, remember to send Linda a copy of PO or Visa (receipt).  Sometimes the secretary does the ordering, so sharing a reminder with your secretary would be helpful; thanks! Also, don’t forget to include these purchases on your inventory! Have you included all the Do the Math purchases on your inventories?

Penny continues to accept compliance documents and welcomes copies sent through the district mail and/or hand delivered (please remember to include the name of your school, along with the document title). Feel free to contact her, at any time, with questions. Collectively, you are doing a terrific job of submitting documents in a timely manner. Thank you, so much, for your attention to this important step in the Title process!

Calendar Items:

January
Week of Jan. 6: Visits to Title schools
1/21: Coordinator PD and Principal/Coordinator meeting; 11:00-3:45
1/31: Go Solve make up; 8:00-11:00

February
2/11: Go To Meeting; 3:00 (tentative)
2/24:  Coordinator PD; 11:00-11:30 lunch/11:30-2:20 PD/2:30-3:45 Principal & Coordinator meeting

Compliance Deadlines:

January:
Week of 1/6: If you haven’t done so already, please submit all out-standing compliance documents that were originally due on 12/9.

1. Bee will be sending out semi-annual certifications in January. These certifications are done twice a year (January/June) and document those staff that are 100% paid for using Title funds.
2. There are no other items due in January. This is a great time to get caught up, if you are a bit behind.
3. Ensure Quickbase entries are current no later than January 17:
   • Title I is checked for all students receiving Title services
   • Parent notification is checked (if sent)
   • Compact is checked (if returned/signed)
   • Notes entered

1/21: Penny will be available to accept compliance documents before/after the meeting, for your convenience
1/31:  you should be current with all your compliance documents
1/31: all student profiles should be current in Quickbase
Week of January 20: Matt to generate Quickbase Summary Reports

February: There are no compliance items due in February

Program Review Document: While work on this document may be a month away, I thought you would appreciate receiving the document sooner rather than later. This document can also be found on the 4j website. Completion of this document has been broken down into two parts in an attempt to make the work a bit more manageable. Be sure and include your Site Council in this process; you will want to speak to your administrator about getting on the SC agenda in the months ahead. Due to the enormity of the document, you may want to consider dividing the work over two SC meetings. Please find the documents below:

Annual Title I SWP Program Review 2014
Annual Title I TAS Program Review 2014